The Bush administration has secretly been collecting the domestic telephone records of millions of U.S. households and businesses, assembling gargantuan databases and attempting to sift through them for clues about terrorist threats, according to sources with knowledge of the program.

The "call detail records" enable U.S. intelligence agencies to track who calls whom, and when, but do not include the contents of conversations, the sources said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the program. The companies cooperating with the National Security Agency dominate the U.S. telecommunications market and connect hundreds of billions of telephone calls each year. Intelligence analysts are seeking to mine their records to expose hidden connections and details of social networks, hoping to find signs of terrorist plots in the vast sea of innocent contacts.<hr /></blockquote>

May 9: Judge Timothy McGinty forcibly incarcerated Carol Fisher in the psych unit of the Cuyahoga County Jail in downtown Cleveland, where she now sits for an indefinite period of time.

In a hastily called hearing yesterday, Judge McGinty made a highly unusual and outrageous decision to force Carol to undergo a state psychological exam as part of her pre-sentencing investigation. From the very start of Carol's case, the judge has openly said that she must have mental problems for resisting an unlawful and brutal encounter with Cleveland Heights police. He went even further in yesterday's hearing, saying that her opposition to the Bush regime makes her "delusional."

The small courtroom on the 21st floor of the Justice Center was ringed with 5 armed court bailiffs. McGinty started off the hearing by making Carol stand up and had one of her attorneys read her t-shirt, which said:

"Wanted for Illegally Crossing Borders: The Bush Regime

"If you are going to insist that crossing borders illegally is a crime which cannot be tolerated, how about George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice (and yes, Colin Powell) and the rest of that gang, with their highly illegal, and violent, 'crossing of the border'-into Iraq, among other places?!"

McGinty then said this was proof of her delusion! He also kept saying Carol "wants" to go to jail, and that she has a "martyr complex." When Carol tried to explain why she wouldn't take this test, the judge's only response was, "I do not negotiate with felons."

Does Carol really want to go to jail? No! But she is not willing to comply with a vindictive court ordered test to "prove" her sanity. And more than that, she is taking a stand for everyone who is angry and fearful of a government that, under the rubric of "national security and the war on terror," willfully and unapologetically tramples on the most basic rights of privacy. Think about this in light of the NSA spying scandal, and now Bush wants to install the head of the notorious NSA to be CIA chief! As Carol said before she went to jail, "I'd be crazy to go along with this [censored]! That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn--or be forced--to accept."

Just look at this whole case: a woman posts a "Bush Step Down" poster on a telephone pole, being brutalized by the police in the process, and now not only faces 3 years in prison but also a mandatory psych exam. As Terry Gilbert, one of Carol's attorneys said, "This is Gulag stuff--saying that people who are dissidents are crazy." He further added that in his 33 years of practicing law, he has never seen anything like this.

<hr /></blockquote>

Welcome to 1984. Good luck guys.

Q

Fran Crimi

05-12-2006, 04:59 AM

And I bet you would move here in a flash if you could. But you can't so you're just JEALOUS.

Admit it.

Fran

Gayle in MD

05-12-2006, 09:01 AM

Funny part about it is that the 9/11 terrorists were mostly all here on expired Visa's, and our government does nothing to find those who are here on an expired visa, or to close our borders. Funny how George can only keep us safe by spying on innocent Amreicans, running rough shod over our laws, and conspiring with the fascist corporate giants to gouge us and outsource our jobs. Just heard this morning, he is now down to 29% approval, and 75% of Americans think we're heading in the right direction. Damn, that kool aid the other 25% have been fed must be some powerful stuff~! /ccboard/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

Our reports on the CIA's secret prisons in Romania and Poland were known to have upset CIA officials. The CIA asked for an FBI investigation of leaks of classified information following those reports.

People questioned by the FBI about leaks of intelligence information say the CIA was also disturbed by ABC News reports that revealed the use of CIA predator missiles inside Pakistan.

Under Bush Administration guidelines, it is not considered illegal for the government to keep track of numbers dialed by phone customers.

The official who warned ABC News said there was no indication our phones were being tapped so the content of the conversation could be recorded.

A pattern of phone calls from a reporter, however, could provide valuable clues for leak investigators.

Gayle in MD

05-15-2006, 11:04 PM

If they don't impeach this SOB, we can kiss America good-bye, it'll never be the same USA it was before Bush.

Gayle in Md.
No free press, no democracy.

DickLeonard

05-16-2006, 04:50 AM

Gayle I hope your preparing for your psyhic test we are leaving a paper trail a mile long. We will probably finally get to meet at our Trial.

Is Ed fighting brush fires in Florida or did he finally read the Bush Family Files. ####

moblsv

05-16-2006, 06:02 AM

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote DickLeonard:</font><hr> Gayle I hope your preparing for your psyhic test we are leaving a paper trail a mile long. We will probably finally get to meet at our Trial.<hr /></blockquote>

I'm afraid her head would explode when all the information collected on her by the government starts to come out.

I can see the line of questioning now. Gayle, are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party.

Gayle in MD

05-16-2006, 07:20 AM

LOL, When you read this story about a woman going through what this judge is putting her through because she is patriot enough to try to stand against an illegal, immoral administration, it is interesting to note that none of the righties are on here attributing this injustice to liberal judges!

We are fast becomming a country where if you don't support this deceitful administration and its law breaking, you're labeled psychologically unsound, the same thing they have tried to do to Mr. Tice, the wire tap whistle blower.

Hey Dick, if we could finally meet, it would be worth a trip to jail, lol... /ccboard/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Gayle in MD

05-16-2006, 07:36 AM

LOL, hey, as long as there remains twenty-five percent in this country who approve of this president, the seventy-five percent who haven't been brain washed with republican definition reversal, aka...REbonics, IOW, those of us who still understand the english language, have an obligation to speak out at every opportunity. If the religious right can maintain that they have a right to muck up our democracy with their need to dictate what the rest of us can and can't do in our personal lives, then straight thinking Americans have an obligation to defend our constitution and the implementation of our laws, especially when we are witnessing the most vicious attack ever prosecuted against our constitutional rights as Americans.

Gayle in Md....hope their reading this!

moblsv

05-16-2006, 07:47 AM

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Gayle in MD:</font><hr>those of us who still understand the english language, have an obligation to speak out at every opportunity.<hr /></blockquote>

"The love of language is the love of truth, and this brings one into conflict with authority, since power employs deceit and is so fond of it."
Garrison Keillor

Gayle in MD

05-16-2006, 08:32 AM

WOW...I love it...how'd I ever miss that great quote!

Here'a a few favorites.

"All great truths, begin as blasphemies." G. B. Shaw

"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth, and they think it is hell." Harry Truman

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day, like a foot-ball, and it will be round and full in the evening." O.W. Holmes

"Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." Oscar Wilde

"The mere apprehension of an approaching evil has put many into a situation of the utmost danger." Lucan: Pharsalia VII.civ

"Democracy is essentially anti-authoritarian-that is, it not only demands the right but imposes the responsibility of thinking for ourselves." Bergen Evans

"Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time." E. B. White World Government and Peace

Gayle in Md.

Cueless Joey

05-16-2006, 10:30 AM

If it took some bugging of my phone to avert terroristic attacks, I won't lose sleep over it.

Gayle in MD

05-17-2006, 08:19 AM

Most say the program is so sweeping, it couldn't possibly be of benefit. They are wasting time and money, spying of EVERYONE, instead of focussing of the one they already know about. If George Bush EVER does ANYTHING that is effective, it will definately be a first! His entire policy of terror is about ignoring real threats, in order to focuss on ulterrior motives and an agenda which does nothing to improve our National Security. If he had spent all the time and money he has spent on spying on innocent Americans, by going after al Qaeda, (remember them?) and bin Laden, closing our border, stopping the illegal alien occupation right here in our country, and addressing our tremendous debt, we'd be a lot safer today.

Instead, our troops die everyday in an Iraqi civil war, so the Iraqis who hate us can vote a new future tyrant into office, while Halliburton, and other Bush/Cheney cornies, rob and steal from the American taxpayer.

Those terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were here on expired VISA's....which we do nothing to oversee.

Not one single arrest, or thwarted attack from all the secret spying has occured.

Bush, is NUTS! Mentally unstable, and morally corrupt! Both Bush and Cheney's personal wealth has grown tremendously since they have been in office. Cheney is worth over 90 million, and Bush's wealth has grown to, IIRC, tripple what he had when he took office. Exon profits are through the roof, and Halliburton's.

Gayle in Md.

Gayle in Md.

wolfdancer

05-17-2006, 09:17 AM

As they say on "Law &amp; Order"
"Follow the money........"

Qtec

05-20-2006, 03:26 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Conservative pundits help terrorists

Another common storyline: Democrats and progressives are unpatriotic; they're not serious about security -- and, in fact, actively help terrorists by taking policy positions conservatives disagree with.

Last week, we noted CNN anchor Miles O'Brien's suggestion that opposing the Iraq war constitutes an "unpatriotic" betrayal of U.S. troops fighting it. Other similarly noteworthy recent statements:

Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke denounced the telecommunications company Qwest for "basically helping terrorists" by reportedly refusing to give the National Security Agency (NSA) the phone records of millions of its customers without a court order or approval according to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Fox News' Carl Cameron told viewers that "the idea that so many Democrats are complaining about the NSA programs without really knowing what they are is precisely why so many Republicans say Democrats just aren't serious about security." Cameron made no mention of the fact that many Republicans are defending the programs without really knowing what they are, or what that says about how serious they are about security.

Los Angeles Times columnist Max Boot wrote that opponents of the NSA's warrantless domestic spying operations "favor unilateral disarmament in our struggle against the suicide bombers." Boot added that Qwest should advertise "itself as the preferred telecom provider of Al Qaeda."

Fox News' John Gibson said: "The Iranian president and the Dems [are] in lockstep" on a range of issues and "if he's borrowing their talking points, maybe they should adjust a bit."

Got all that? Thinking that the NSA should follow the law and get court authorization before it rifles through your mother's phone records constitutes "unilateral disarmament in our struggle against the suicide bombers." Questioning a program that experts say is illegal and ineffective is an indication that you "just aren't serious about security." Protecting your customers' privacy is "basically helping terrorists."

Just one problem: the terrorists, we were told, "hate our freedoms." They "kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life." They "hope that America grows fearful."

So, who exactly is "basically helping the terrorists"? Isn't it conservative pundits like Kondracke and Boot, who trip all over themselves to willingly give up the very freedoms the terrorists are trying to take from us? Isn't it "leaders" like Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), who give in to their fear, declaring that civil liberties must be curtailed because "you don't have any civil liberties if you're dead." Isn't it John Gibson, who thinks Americans should let the Iranian president dictate their speech?

<hr /></blockquote>

If you have a record of who called who, when they called and from where they called, then you have a spy system open for massive abuse.
Take the Palme Affair. Lets say Libby said he never met X at a hotel, that he was somewhere else and X says he was also somewhere else.
Lets say they did meet and they used there cellphones from the same location? The NSA would know they were lying!
They know everyone who is involved in the J Abrahmoff scandal and they know those who havent yet been caught. A scan on DeLay and his communications would also be very revealing. The possibilities for blackmail are infinite.

See it for what it is, a grab for power under the guise of Nat Sec. When GW made his speech on tv, his first words were, "since 9/11.........". Its always the same. GW 'the protector'. "I will save you'.
If you believe that................!
Q

Gayle in MD

05-20-2006, 05:48 AM

On target Q. How this president can have the gaul to continue to play the National Security, keep Americans safe, tune, while ignoring open borders, cutting funds for Homeoland Security, FEMA, Border patrols, for five years, and dismantling CIA and FEMA. He spent millions to transform them into bureaucratic impotent organizations, and got an F for failing to implement the changes needed to successfully avoid/fight another attack.

The only Americans George Bush represents, are wealthy CEO's, foreign and domestic, and the rest of us are footing the bill, as he destroys our country to do so, and fails to correct and implement programs for real National Security.

As we approach 2,500 lost American lives, in Iraq, and over 8,000 troops permenantly injured, in a civil war, deemed militarily un-winnable, I am amazed that even 29% in this country count themselves as supporters of a failed, un-necessary, and ineffective Bush foreign policy and his so called war on terror.

I hope Americans will think twice before they vote for another silver spooned, F-up, with a history like Bush!

Gayle in Md.

Sid_Vicious

05-20-2006, 09:18 AM

"I hope Americans will think twice before they vote for another silver spooned, F-up, with a history like Bush!"

Don't count on it Gayle. Most of the Bushies I talk to personally still have the broken record response, "Well the Dems are just as bad." IMMOSO, NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY-NOBODY, could be as dumb and destructive as GWB. The man is an embarrassment to our country and needs to be kicked out pronto...sid~~~sure would like to see a good third party and the elimination of the electorate college

Gayle in MD

05-21-2006, 11:01 AM

Well, what else can they say, Martin, lol. They have the distinction of being included in a group of Americans who took part in an act about which Newspaper Headlines Read...

HOW CAN 40 MILLION PEOPLE BE SO DUMB?

AND, the world now knows, the headline was right!

AND, that, my friend, was over four years ago !!! AND... they STILL haven't gotten it !!! Now, let's not forget....45% of the religious right who voted for George Bush, believe the Bible, LITERALLY !!!

What else can you expect from that kind of ignorance?

Here's one thing you can bank on for sure. Whatever George Bush (Bonzo) and General Haden (Little Henry) are up to, what we have heard about it, and what Congress has heard about it, thus far, is just the tip of the iceburg! When they start using the info to go after the press leaks, and get caught doing it, the proverbial $h## will hit the fan!
You can tell where Bush is going with all this. His main thrust has been to discredit whistle blowers, and try to strengthen the law to intimidate them. He's broken the law, no question, and he's trying to do damage control, to keep from being impeached. He has to criminalize the brave whistle blower patriots... So when they find out the whole scope of what he's doing, he can cry National Security!

Bush's history is to stand back while others do his dirty work, then throw up his hands and say he didn't do it, he didn't know about it...just like he did with McCain in the primary.

Or, he breaks the law, then changes the law to correct his law breaking...ie, Valarie Plame, and his tardy de-classification....

He's the worst ever, for sure, and I"M SO PROUD I DIDN'T VOTE FOR GEORGE BUSH !!!!